Cracking 197
by movielover57
Summary: Walter's inner thought process following the aftermath of 3x22.


Disclaimer: I do not own Scorpion. Please don't sue me! The Scorpion tv show is based loosely on the life of computer expert Walter O'Brien. Scorpion belongs to CBS, and all the credit for its creation goes to Nick Santora and all those involved with the production of this wonderful series. Some quotes in this story are taken from actual Scorpion episodes (episode references included).

A/N: First of all, SPOILER ALERT. If you have not yet seen the most recent episode of Scorpion, turn back now. You may not want to read this until after you've viewed the latest episode. You have been warned. Monday night's episode hit me hard like many Scorpion fans, I'm sure. It took me a few days to process. I wrote this because I had alot of feelings, lol, and I just wanted to try to get into Walter's head. That was my main objective. What was going through that mind of his? What on Earth would cause him to fire Paige?! This is what I came up with. There are probably some inconsistencies. That happens with fanfiction. Please forgive those, feel free to leave constructive criticism, and enjoy! :)

Walter O'Brien stood in the silence of the garage. Only the sound of the neon Scorpion Explosives sign to fill the void. For how long he stood, he didn't really know. After his blow up with Paige, and the dispersion of his team, it didn't really matter. A minute, twenty, maybe an hour? With his 197 IQ he could have made an educated time table. The fact was though, he was alone...that was the key. He had spent hours and pages of paper, thinking this through. Why did it always end this way?

"There's no malice in you Walter. Just facts." Ep. 1x16

Contrary to what he was sure his friends believed, he hadn't intended to be cruel or spiteful, to hurt Paige's feelings. He hadn't intended to place the look of betrayal on Ralph's face. Quite the opposite. He thought he was doing the most logical thing to preserve their feelings, as well as his own. Sadly, his statement had made the opposite impact...as always.

Walter took a few steps backward to the desk directly behind him. He sighed and foldled his hands in his lap as he took a seat behind the workstation of Paige Dineen.

The man was embarrassed, surely. The realizations of his halucinagenic actions in space were less than desirable. But the embarrassment did not outweigh the hurt and disappointment. Walter generalized that he could have handled the embarrassment, if Paige and the people he considered to be family, would have told him the truth. Everyone knew...everyone, for the longest time. The idea that no one trusted him with emotions, while frustrating, was justified. Emotional Quotient wasn't their strong suit. They all knew that. The idea that no one trusted him with the truth, however, stung. With every step forward, he took several steps back, but he was learning. His heart was changing. The evidence of that was clear in the hurt that he was currently trying to process. The problem was that change bred more change. And while he was changing, no one else altered the way that they handled him. With kid gloves, as if he was still uncapable of handling his own feelings. Three years ago, that would have been the case, but not now.

"You won't like it."

"Try me!" Ep.3x22

They let him walk around without having all the facts. _Give me all the variables!_ His mind screamed in protest. Processing emotions was an internal action. Therefore, it made sense that it could not always be seen externally. He was trying so hard to grow as a human being and they just couldn't see it!

"Of course. You're the most honest person I know." Ep. 3x15

And it was true. She was open and honest, from the beginning. Never waivering in her duties, Paige always told them the truth with, sincerity and candor, even when it was difficult . Until now...Until it concerned him and her and this relationship that had been developing between them. Then she backed away. She put a wall up. She did exactly what she had taught them all NOT to do.

"I love you too, Walter." Ep. 3x03

The"memory" of his "I love you" was a shock to the system. Her response, was a shock to his very core. He had never considered that she might reciprocate. It awoke a new awareness. That someone, particularly Paige, would be able to love him back, romantically, despite his flaws and excentricities. It defied all probabilities. It captured every spec of rational cognition, scaring him at how much it rendered him incapable to do what was expected of him, in the moment. His brain processed this reciprocation as the truth. Her voice had told him so. But she denied it. There was more to the story, her voice gave that away too.

Toby, Happy, Sly, and Cabe had to stop taking his human notions out of his hands. That thought ultimately led him to his most recent, disasterous, executive decision. The previous might never happen with Paige as a buffer.

"I've never had anyone that cared about my emotional development before. Someone who'd try different things to help me. Thanks for letting me sink or swim."

"It was part of a plan to let you sink or swim, to see if... I wanted to see if you could get to another level of EQ on your own, to see if you could grow without me holding your hand, because I believe you can." Ep. 3x15

Paige knew what he hadn't for almost a year. That he loved her. That despite his stance on being nothing more than "professional collegues" he cared for her in a way that he was finally able to admit. Albeit an hallucengenic admission, but an admission none the less. Now he had come to the conclusion that he knew something that Paige didn't yet know herself. Cabe said she wasn't lying. And according to Toby, people didn't just go against their nature for no reason. Paige cared for him. She said she loved him. That was fact. While his brain processed it as such, hers hadn't. She hadn't lied. She couldn't tell a truth that she hadn't processed herself.

He saw the growth in his team. All of them had become so much more under Paige's guidance. They were finally "swimming" so to speak on their own. As their boss, it was time for a change. The time had come for them to see him "swim" without Paige. She couldn't be his cushion here anymore, and he couldn't be everything to her. Boss and whatever this relationship could become just didn't mix. This seperation would give Paige the space that she needed, to perhaps, get to the place he was already at. If she saw that he could be human without her, it was only reasonable to think that maybe just maybe, they could eventually be human together in a much different way. After everything she'd done for him, for Scorpion, he owed it to her, to prove that he could do it.

"You are the one brain I can't crack, 197." Ep. 3x22

Toby and Happy's wedding was only a few weeks away. He knew she'd be there, for their friends, no matter how angry she was at him. This hurt wouldn't easily pass, work wouldn't be the same, but it was certain as the statistics and science in which he relied. Walter was finally cracking his own code.


End file.
